The Complete Guide To Setting Up AdSense

What Is AdSense?

Ads are the easiest way to monetize a blog. You basically just need to set them up, and then when traffic starts flowing in, you’ll earn an income.

Google AdSense is a popular way to show adverts on your blog.

Why AdSense?

AdSense is debatably the best ad provider. The algorithm shows the highest paying ads on your blog and the company itself is highly reliable.

Payment details:

•There is a $100/€70 minimum pay out. This means that you can only withdraw your money once you hit the $100 mark.
•Payments are sent 1 month after. This means that if you made $102 in June, you will likely receive your income in July.

Requirements Needed To Join AdSense:

•You must be over 18.
•You must own a website.
•Your website must contain unique content.

Setting Up Adsense Tutorial

First, you need to go to the Adsense page. And you will immediately see this:

To start setting up Adsense, you need a Gmail account.

Click on the big green ‘sign up’ button.

Once you click the ‘sign up’ button, it will ask you to choose a Gmail account, like below.

Choose your account or add a new one.

Next up, you will be asked to enter some details.

In the ‘Your Website’ section, write down the URL of your site/blog where you will be showing your ads.

Fill in the rest and scroll down.

Make sure you read the ’Terms and Conditions’ (Yes, yes. I said to read them!). If you accept, click ‘create an account’.

If you accept, click ‘create an account’.

Next, you’ll be shown the payment details.

Now, you want to fill this part very carefully. It mostly contains details required for tax purposes.

But, don’t worry, it’s nothing complicated!

If you are an individual, you can leave the account type like this. But if you are a business, please make sure you adjust that.

Then enter your personal details and click ‘submit’.

After this step, you might be asked to verify your phone number through a text or a call. Just follow the instructions given at the time.

Verify Your Website

Then you WILL be asked to verify ownership of the website. They need to make sure you actually own the website you submitted earlier. Which is… you know…understandable.

They need to make sure you actually own the website you submitted earlier. Which is… you know…understandable.

Once you go to the AdSense homepage, you will be shown a personalized code.

Now you need to copy that code into your website before the closing <head> tag.

If you’re not a coder, and you don’t know what that means, don’t worry I will show you how!

If you are using a gorgeous Genesis theme, this step is really easy to complete.

Go to your dashboard> Genesis> Scroll down until you see this:

Then paste the verification code in the ‘Header script’, as shown above.

Find the ‘Scripts in the Header’ section, and paste your code there. (Make sure to save!).

Once you’ve finished, go back to the AdSense verification page.

Check the box and click done.

TADA.

You have finished the setting up Adsense part.

Easy Peasy, right?

PROTIP: After you verify your website, it might take a few days to be accepted into the program. When that happens, they will email you, saying that you’ve been accepted and that you can now add adverts on your site.

PROTIP: Don’t remove the verification code from the header script before you are accepted into the program.

PROTIP: If you’re not accepted into the AdSense program, it could be due to one of the following reasons:

1. You don’t have unique content2. You don’t have enough content3. Your site does not comply with Google Adsense Policy. Read it here.

Customizing Ads

To create a new ad, go to Adsense Home> My ads> Ad units> Add new.

Select which type of ad you want to display from the below:

Then, you can customize it.

Once you click ‘select’, you’ll see the below page.

PROTIP: Remember you can customize each ad differently. And so you can optimize each ad for its position on your website.

For example:Ads on top of posts tend to be horizontal and narrow.Ads in the sidebar tend to be thick and vertical.

Let’s take a more in-depth look:

First, you need to name your ad.

Then, you need to choose the shape and size.

Afterward, you can choose from a text or image (display) ads. If you choose the first option, AdSense will display the most profitable ads (either text or image ads).

Then you can choose the overall theme of your ad. This is basically the color of the border, the words etc…

You can further customize the ad themes in the above section.

The ’custom channels‘ option lets you group ads. But if you’re a beginner, you don’t need to worry about this.

The if ‘no ads available’ option gives you a chance to display something else (or not) if ads are not available.

Then click ‘save and get code’. And this pops up:

Now, that code displayed is the code you need add to show the ads.

And now, for the last few steps of setting up Adsense ads:

Adding Ads To Your Site

Once you are accepted into the program, you can start adding adverts to your site. YAY.

First things first, you need to figure out where you are going to place them.

Are you going to add adverts to your side bar? In other widget areas? In your posts?

The highest converting ads are usually placed in the upper part of the website. This means that they are shown as soon as you click on the site, without scrolling down.

This could easily be achieved by placing ads in the primary sidebar, or above posts.

But that’s entirely your choice. Figure out where you want your ads to appear and then use the below instructions to add them.

Adding Ads To Your Widgets

To add adverts to your sidebar or to other widgets, you just need to go to Appearance>Widgets.

The select the text widget and place it where you want the ad to show.

Open the text widget, switch to the text editor and paste the ad code.

Here is a sneak peek of how an ad should look in a sidebar:

Adding Ads In Between Posts

To add ads in between posts, you can just do it manually by pasting the code in the text editor.

But if you want the ads to appear on all your posts, you can use this simple-to-use plugin (It’s free btw):

Then go to the dashboard sidebar, and select post adverts.

Click ‘add new’ and this screen will be shown:

Name your ad.

Paste your ad code.

And select where you want the ad to show. In the above example, the ad will be shown under the 5th paragraph.

PROTIP: To make the ad appear at the center of the post just add:<center> before the code.</center> after the code.

Another awesome feature this plugin has is the ability to disable ads on a particular post.

In the post editor, if you scroll down, you will find this:

If you tick the box, post ads will not appear on that particular post.

PROTIP: When you add ads to your site. They do not appear immediately. They usually take 2-3 hours to show up!

Check Your Balance With Google AdSense

After setting up AdSense, you are going to want to keep an eye on your earnings. All you need to do is go to your AdSense home page. And you will see your account and balance summary, like this:

And you’re done! You finished the complete guide to setting up AdSense!

That is absolutely all you need to know to set up AdSense ads on your site.

Hope it helps :)!

For more blogging, tips, tutorials, and freebies make sure to subscribe to our newsletter… Plus you’ll get the free Blog Post Checklist!

Did you find this tutorial useful? Did you learn something new? Do you have other blogging queries? Share with us in the comments!

Related

Spread the love

About DiscoveringNina

Nina is the writer and editor for her blog discoveringnina.com. She has a strong passion for blogging and anything blog-related. In her spare time, she likes to travel and read a good book, or two.